Reconstruction:Proto-Slavic/čьmeľь

This Proto-Slavic entry contains reconstructed terms and roots. As such, the term(s) in this entry are not directly attested, but are hypothesized to have existed based on comparative evidence.

From Proto-Balto-Slavic *kimelаs, from Proto-Indo-European *km̥H-el-i-, probably onomatopoeic from a root *kemH- (“to hum”) + *-eľь.

Cognate with Lithuanian kamanė (“bumblebee”), Latvian kamene (“bumblebee”), Old Prussian camus (“bumblebee”), Proto-Germanic *humelaz (“bumblebee”).

*čьmèľь m

1. bumblebee

• East Slavic:
  • Belarusian: чмель (čmjelʹ)
  • Middle Russian: шмель (šmelʹ) (17ᵗʰ c.)
    • Russian: шмель (šmelʹ)
  • Ukrainian: чміль (čmilʹ), джміль (džmilʹ)
• South Slavic:
  • Serbo-Croatian:

    Cyrillic script: чмѐла

    Latin script: čmèla

  • Slovene: čmŕlj (tonal orthography)
• West Slavic:
  • Czech: čmel, čmelák
  • Kashubian: brzmiôl, brzmiél, grzmiôl, grzmiél
  • Polabian: stamil
  • Old Polish: czmiel
    • Polish: trzmiel
  • Slovak: čmeľ
  • Sorbian:
    • Lower Sorbian: tśmjel
    • Upper Sorbian: čmjeła

• *komãrъ (“mosquito”)

• Trubachyov, Oleg, editor (1977), “*čьmelь/*čьmela”, in Этимологический словарь славянских языков (in Russian), numbers 4 (*čaběniti – *děľa), Moscow: Nauka, page 145
• Vasmer, Max (1964–1973) “шмель”, in Oleg Trubachyov, transl., Этимологический словарь русского языка (in Russian), Moscow: Progress